A Little Less of Everything
by thebishielovingotaku
Summary: Master Zabuza had yet to return from the mission assigned by the lord of Aruigakure. He had left yesterday, Haku recounted, after telling to boy to stay out of trouble for the time being. But staying out of trouble is more difficult than one imagines it to be, even for an obedient boy like Haku... (starts out serious and then becomes puke-worthy. Well then, puke away!)
1. Restless

_[Holydumpling's author comment: First of all...Haku belongs to me! Zabuza belongs to me! jk xD They belong to Kishimoto...but, still, in my dreams, Haku totally belongs to me. This chapter is perfectly normal. And, uh... comments are really appreciated!]_

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Master Zabuza had yet to return from the mission assigned by the lord of Aruigakure. He had left yesterday, Haku recounted. Yesterday, at roughly an hour after noon, when the rains were still heavy, with an oiled cloak wrapped about him and his precious _Kubikiribōchō_ strapped to his back. He had been entirely confident about his ability to complete the required assasination - rightfully so, for he wasn't known as the Demon of the Hidden Mist for nothing - and had therefore decided that Haku should stay behind and wait for him to return, lest the boy be a burden for what should be a quick task.

The task of killing the Lord Sirauji was, in reality, by no means quick. It was small, yes, but the Lord Sirauji lived miles from where their last mission had been; even a capable shinobi like master Zabuza would take a few days before reaching the Lord's residence. Haku expected his master's return in a week, give or take a day.

Haku was told to stay within the confines of their temporary home, no farther than the porch, to prevent rousing suspicion. He was told to stay out of trouble for the time being, although both he and his master knew he wasn't one to go looking for trouble, at least not without his master's spoken consent. And Haku took a rather loose interpretation of the order to "plan the next mission," as Zabuza always preferred to be the one who handled the specifics, however much Haku asked him to take a rest, and leave it to the boy, for once.

Actually, it seemed now to Haku that his master had left him behind for the sole purpose of giving Haku himself a rest. It was a rare act of kindness not frequently seen from the man. Ironically, such a rest made Haku restless. He took to staring at the rain which had gradually become a light snow, staring at the white which was so so blinding, staring at nothing in particular at all which was unusually unproductive of him. He worried about how his master fared, couldn't shake off the thought that maybe, just maybe, he should have insisted on going as well. Not that he hadn't, but...

He had become mesmerized by the white snow, the pureness of freshly-fallen snow. How could snow be so pure? He scooped up a handful, contemplating the one color of white. Without thinking, he fused chakra into the mass of ice, made it gently crawl up his arm in beautiful, crystalline swirls. Snow was ... so dangerously enchanting. An ice needle inserted into someone, intentionally in the wrong place, by a skilled acupuncturist - that was indeed very dangerous. Indeed very dangerous...

A thought suddenly occurred to Haku: he should imbue his senbon with some sort of painkiller. While Master Zabuza did not approve of unnecessary acts of mercy that would waste time, he had never voiced opposition to acts of mercy that didn't waste time either. Contrary to popular theory, he was not so much the demon most thought he was; master Zabuza simply preferred efficiency was all, and sometimes such efficiency called for priority over morals and ethics. It was a valid idea, this painkiller theory...

That was how Haku ended up using the given week working on imbuing his signature acupuncture needles with painkilling analgesics.

_*analgesic = painkiller_  
_*Kubikiribōchō = sword wielded by one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist_


	2. Careless

_[Holydumpling's author comment: This chapter involves Haku, who belongs to Kishimoto, and a rating of M. But if you do read it, please leave a comment! Thanks!]_

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The science of imbuing analgesics, how it worked and subdued nerve impulses, turned out to be a concept that Haku grasped easily. Although he had been battle-trained by master Zabuza from a young age, a part of his heart lay with the mysteries of medicine and the anatomy of the human body.

Two days of work led him to his first successful attempt, three days to his fifth. Confident that he could correctly mix an analgesic that would work from external surfaces while completely saturating a senbon's tip, Haku sat down to relax for a moment. Next came the hard part.

Now, Haku was a practical boy, just as master Zabuza had trained him to be. And as a boy of fifteen, he wasn't entirely a stranger to the world of earthly pleasures. He saw earthly pleasures as a practical necessity of the living, and he knew the basics - only the basics as he certainly couldn't ask to be taught something so intimate - which included releasing himself and cleaning up afterwards.

He chose a secluded place in the rooms he called living quarters, and proceeded to carefully do so, slowly and surely. Haku had done this before, touched himself like this before, but inexperience plagued him. He remembered a man from Konoha had mentioned the benefits of fantasizing...

Usually, it was quick. Five minutes was already long, even if he didn't pump especially vigorously. So it was strange when Haku sat there for nearly ten minutes, his digits moving up and down the exposed shaft, without coming any closer to the expected release. God, his arousal did ache with the desire to release, but he couldn't feel the familiar pleasure building up...

_[If you don't think wrong, it won't sound wrong. He could be massaging himself and polishing a spear at the same time for Pete's sak- omg O_O spear... ]_

And then it struck him. The painkiller. Had he fi- no, he hadn't. He must have transferred some of the analgesic from his hand to his... Haku gave up the stroking, silently cursed himself for his carelessness. Cleaning up, he mentally calculated how long the painkiller would remain effective. Probably a few hours, he supposed. He had purposely designed the analgesic so that it didn't last long; the point was to ease the pain, and often that required not damaging the body. He decided to give it a try another day. After all, there was still half a week before the day he predicted master Zabuza's return would be.

_*hard part = (figuratively) difficult task; (literally) arousal_


	3. Selfless

_[Holydumpling's author comment: Haku and Zabuza, of course, belong to fangirls. Er, I mean, Kishimoto! Leave a comment and subscribe! (Yes, I know, I'm being a little too hopeful here.)]_

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The sun was still halfway up in the sky, its bright light barely visible behind the translucent clouds, when Haku stepped outside to admire the snow, which had continued to fall since the day master Zabuza had left. He hadn't considered the thought until now, but maybe... maybe his mood caused such weather, aided the rain in its transition to snow. It definitely was possible, if one took into account the boy's _Hyōton kekkai genkai_. However, if he did affect it, Haku had no control over it. And unless he decided to develop a new _jutsu_ that would allow him to deliberately reign over weather, such speculation would be useless to master Zabuza. Zabuza needed something that could be practically applied, and what this thought led to provided none of that.

Even so, Haku entertained the idea for a moment. If he was adept at a weather-manipulating jutsu, making it snow in the middle of a battle could reduce the enemy's range of vision. It would no doubt go well with his other ice release techniques, like the Thousand Flying Water Needles of Death. He could perform the seals with his left hand, ready another _jutsu_ with his right, and the the snow would mask the needles... no, the snow would probably distract him anyway.

Haku fiddled around with the nearby snow, tweaking its personality in a playful manner. One minute elegant and beautiful, the next fierce and threatening, then lazy and sluggish... Haku knew if master Zabuza disapproved of emotions in humans, he would certainly argue against the existence of emotions in snow, which was "inanimate." But the truth was, snow was a living, breathing creature.

This was the one notion that Zabuza could not separate from Haku. If Zabuza was the one most influential figure in Haku's life, then snow would be the second. If Zabuza was the one person Haku adored the most, snow would be what the boy adored second-most. If Zabuza was the one person Haku cared about the most, a small space in his heart would still be reserved for snow...snow was _that_ important. Snow was, simply, his friend, in a world where friends were discouraged, where friends meant betrayal, where friends meant death. Yes, master Zabuza had beaten those concepts into Haku well, but not well enough, it seemed...

_[Or shall we say..."Zabuza was just _that_ important?"]_

Well, even if manipulating the weather was impracticle and improbable, if not impossible, there were still other ideas worth a try. Haku remembered the boy - what was his name again? - with the ability to transform into a liquid. Suigetsu Hōzuki, was it? The brother of Mangetsu Hōzuki, Zabuza's "predecessor," who had wielded _Kubikiribōchō_ before master Zabuza.

If only Haku could unite with snow the same way Suigetsu united with water, that would be ideal. That would be complete optimization of his kekkai genkai, complete utilization of his Hyōton. Something master Zabuza sought after and highly praised. The idea itself did appeal very much to Haku.

_*Hyōton = ice release kekkai genkai_

_*Kubikiribōchō = sword wielded by one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist_


	4. Effortless

_[Chapter 4 is normal. Except for, uh, possible nudity. -_- You crazy perv stalkers.]_

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Jutsus, like everything else, weren't as simple as they appeared to be. But Haku was a bright, capable boy with an impressive kekkai genkai. A kekkai genkai that had not failed him in the past, had not shown any signs of having a limit except that of imagination's. Frankly speaking, though, Haku did not expect success at the first attempt of "uniting" with snow. Nor did he expect success at the next several hundred attempts. However, it was possible and could be practically applied and would be useful and he had the time.

He began lazily attempting to transform his fingers, picturing a hand of ice. Water vapor from the surrounding air condensed into tiny droplets, froze into miniature icicles, gathered together to arrange a network of crytsal vines growing up his arm. They expanded their territory over his skin, forming a thin layer of brilliant ice, as if the ice became a second "skin."

Something was different. There was a weird feeling, a weird sensation. And then Haku realized what had happened. What he thought was a layer of ice was actually his own skin... in crystallized form. He had done it. He had actually done it.

His face lit up with an uncharacteristic grin as he experimented with other parts of his body. Closing his eyes, he felt the snow enshroud him as would a soft blanket... Within less than an hour, he was able to completely transform into ice - a great feat.

Walking around as an organic ice form was awkward and uncomfortable, though it was not a disappointment because he had already anticipated this possibility. There was noticeably more power in his taijutsu, but at a sacrifice for the speed which was his greatest asset. No, second-greatest asset, after the Hyōton. Anyhow, with more practice, it would get better. And that was exactly what Haku did for the rest of the day.

Suigetsu Hōzuki, Haku recalled, had named his hydrification technique Suika no Jutsu. Haku found it fitting to dub his own icification technique, similarly, as Gyōko no Jutsu. Long after the sun had set and about to retire to his bed, Haku picked up his discarded pieces of clothing; solidifying his body into ice meant he had to abandon his clothes, and that was a matter he would have to consider...and could be put off until later...

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_[Holydumpling here: it is becoming increasingly difficult to write about snow and ice, not using the words "snow" and "ice." You cannot imagine my pain -_- ...orz... And, uh... for those who're following this story, I'm so sorry that I took a month to update. I'm trying to balance my time between art and OCs and fanfics and school...so yeah...and for the record, Candyvagabond (friend in this collab account) isn't really helping *rage* I'll start a new hakuzabu story soon, hopefully, since this story will eventually become very very weird and we all need that sort of... fluff...]_


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